Hopes for the Administration in the New Year

As we start to make our way into the new year, many of us strive toward positive change and we attain our resolutions. This new year does not only represent a fresh start for the students at Exeter, but one for the administration as well.

As a school, we have faced many hardships over this past year on issues such as sexual assault, the acceptance of unpopular opinions and an overall lack of trust the students have for the administration. Nonetheless, my peers and I understand that our administration is attempting to create solutions to the issues that face our community.

The biggest issue that faces our school is undoubtedly the broken relationship between the student body and Exeter’s administration.

I firmly believe that we, the students, need to be able to openly share our hopes for 2017’s administration more effective change to transpire.

The biggest issue that faces our school is undoubtedly the broken relationship between the student body and Exeter’s administration. Time and time again individuals and the community as a whole experience situations in which trust is breached and delicate matters are mishandled.

Cases such as the John and Jane Doe sexual assault incident, in which our school told student John Doe that he would be required to leave the school for one term and return to campus having weakened our trust in the administration, as the school then told the student he would be forced to leave permanently. Another alumnus spoke to the Boston Globe recently about his girlfriend being sexually assaulted years ago. His response to how the school handled the situation was, “Their effective lack of a response was as good as condoning the harassment.” Sadly, that young woman committed suicide.

I have even found myself in a situation where confidentiality was breached. I had never had an issue at Exeter until last year, and I decided to talk to members of the administration about my problem. Within a day, the anonymity which I was promised was unmasked; my trust was broken.

With all of this in mind, I have hopes regarding trust for the administration. Firstly, I hope that students can get to know key members of the administration such as the deans under positive, low stress conditions. It seems as if there are mainly two ways for the deans to meet students: through classes or situations that call for non-disciplinary or disciplinary action. If our deans and other members of the administration were to interact with students in different ways, it would be beneficial for everyone.

The student body would have more trust in our school if they knew more about the deans, and the administration would have a better idea of how to approach issues if they got to know more students.

This sums up my hopes for the administration in 2017. We are an incredible community, but we should strive to be even better. If we can live in a more trust based, accepting school, I know that everyone will be happier.